Examining police violence in the US through pop art visuals.
domain
medium
year
role
MFA
Graphic design
2022
solo project
I redesigned Andy Warhol's iconic Tomato Soup can and the Campbell's Tomato Soup nutritional label to display US police violence statistics from 2022. I replaced the original labels with my design printed on vinyl stickers, then installed the cans with gashes cut into their sides, allowing the soup to trickle out like blood from a wound.
I processed these images in lithograph style for digital distribution, and handed the physical cans out at Union Square, beckoning passers by to confront uncomfortable truths.
(1) Photograph of killings can processed in lithograph style using Photoshop
(2) Andy Warhol's Campbell's Tomato Soup Lithograph
Making people aware of sensitive topics is sometimes best achieved through surprise. This is why I have used games as a medium to communicate educational and political messages.
Pop art, renowned for its ability to question American culture through a critical and ironic lens, is a fitting medium to highlight the problem of police violence. Pop art is core to American artistic culture, and police violence is a core issue in American society. Fusing the two urges us to reconsider the status quo and demand accountability.
